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Verb

Back in the days of Middle English, the Anglo-French noun bruit, meaning "clamor" or "noise," rattled into English. Soon English speakers were also using it to mean "report" or "rumor" (it applied especially to favorable reports). We also began using "bruit" as a verb the way we used (and still occasionally do use) the verb "noise," with the meaning "to spread by rumor or report" (as in "the scandal was quickly noised about"). The English noun "bruit" is now considered archaic, but the verb lives on.

Examples of bruit in a Sentence

Noun

a film that captures the thunderous fury of medieval warfare and the bruit of a thousand clashing swords

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bruit.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.